


In a Buttermilk Sky (I Swim, I Swim)

by orphan_account



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-03
Updated: 2014-12-03
Packaged: 2018-02-28 00:51:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2712902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto feels raindrops on his shoulder, seeping into the fabric of his uniform. </p><p>The street light above him flickers on as he opens his umbrella.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In a Buttermilk Sky (I Swim, I Swim)

“ _Rise.”_

Desks clatter, students shuffle to get on their feet.

“ _Bow.”_

A chorus of _'thank you for today's lesson',_ and a thump as the door closes behind the teacher.

Makoto stays still, watching his classmates file out around him in threes and twos. Their voices grow far, descending into quiet murmurs, echoing through the hallways. He sighs, and looks down to his feet, his backpack next to his desk.

“We should head home as well, Haru,” he says. Not _'We should head to practice, Haru,'_ not _'Kirishima-senpai is going to yell at us if we're late, Haru'._ The words still feel out of place, loud and discordant. His breath staggers a little. He's still stumbling through this － a feeling he doesn't think he'll ever get used to, being a world where everything turned on its axis, leaving him with unease.

Everyone _(he thinks of warm auburns, a faraway dream of cerise)_ feels out of his reach. Haruka is a universe away and not a desk over, another even further.

Or maybe it's just him.

“Oh.” Haruka hasn't replied, hasn't moved from looking out the window. Makoto doesn't look at him. “I'll be going, then?”

He grabs his bag and trudges out of the classroom. “See you tomorrow, Haru-chan.”

 

\-----

 

“Altocumulus,” Makoto remembers from geography.

Along the beach, he walks, an umbrella in hand. It taps against the concrete road, he taps it on the side of his shoes. He looks up to the desaturated blues stretching across the darkening sky, late afternoon sunlight behind patches of white clouds.

“Mackerel sky.” Haruka's eyes would've glittered, if he weren't asleep.

Makoto stops and grips his umbrella tighter.

“But it does look like a mackerel's scales, don't you think? Rolls of clouds, white scales covering the sky... looking at them makes you feel like you're floating!” Rin would've said, if they were in the same class.

The wind blows, it's a little cold. An idle thought passes, he wonders if it might rain soon.

 

\-----

 

He thinks of fluttering red, Rin's hair from the back, the sky as the sun sets. Lagging a few steps behind, Makoto could see how the ends curl away from his nape, colour stark against the hoodie of his swim club jacket.

He thinks of Rin, slowing down to match his pace. With a toothy grin, he nods his head towards Nagisa. Makoto lets his eyes follow, finding the small boy scurrying, trying his hardest to match Haruka's steps.

He thinks of cherry blossoms, striking reds fading into softer pinks, their run home phasing into their elementary graduation. He hears Rin cry before he sees him. Turning to look behind him, he sees Rin from between his classmates. Eyes screwed shut, he tries to wipe away the tears with the heel of his palms.

“Matsuoka-kun, you've only been here three months!” someone says in between laughs, their voice suspiciously thick.

Rin's bawls subsides into sniffles as the ceremony draws to an end. Makoto remembers his tear-streaked face, his puffy eyes, the petals that made their way into Rin's hair.

He remembers the smile on Rin's face as they part.

 

\-----

 

Makoto feels raindrops on his shoulder, seeping into the fabric of his uniform.

The street light above him flickers on as he opens his umbrella.

 

\-----

 

 _'You've shown me the best sight I could ever ask for,'_ Rin says at the end.

 _'For the team,'_ Haru writes on the ground.

Makoto wonders if time had stopped before, the way he feels the world suddenly moving around him now. Everything wasn't five millimetres off. He could walk freely, down a road often travelled, a familiarity he _missed so much._

 _'Welcome home,'_ he wants to say, letting himself fall further down into the comforting warmth.

 

\----- 

 

“You don't need to worry,” Haru says one afternoon. He swings his legs a little as they hang over the porch, a stray cat on his lap.

“Huh?” Makoto stops petting the white cat nestled next to him.

“You've tried your best. It'll work out, now.”

He doesn't quite understand. Haru's words came out of nowhere, he wasn't even looking at him, eyes fixed to a point somewhere in the sky.

“Altocumulus,” Haru mumurs. “Not quite a mackerel sky, though.”

“They're pretty rare anyway.” Makoto chuckles, hand moving to scratch under the cat's chin.

 

\-----

 

He meets Rin after a sunshower. Light streams through the dark clouds. A drop water slides across a leaf and into a puddle by his feet.

“ _Thank you, Rin,”_ is all he says.

A cluster of blues and purples dots the bushes around them. Rin's smile in the midst of hydrangeas in full bloom. Red colours their cheeks. His hands worrying the hem of his shirt, fingers curling around a loose strand.

_To you, who always works hard..._

“Rin, I―”

 

\-----

 

Cherry blossoms in full bloom, trees lining the Meguro River. Umbrella in hand, Makoto walks under the soft shower of pink. He tilts the umbrella over his head, peeking underneath the canopy to see a buttermilk sky. A lone petal falls on his head.

He smiles and continues his walk. _'It feels like I'm floating.'_

 


End file.
